Athene

[quote]Hi, we hired a van with europcar, there websire is www.europcar.fr . or www.europcar.com this one is in english if thats any easier. We went in to the local office rather than book online and man...[/quote] Is there a branch of Europcar in Pons Emma?

[quote]FK, it looks as if this time you have embarked us all on a great project, Bryan Ferry. As you missed the other giraffes, I was wondering whether you would accept a deflatable giraffe (as opposed to a...[/quote] Well you will need me as I could be in charge of vetting animals before they board! I am not sure I will be letting all those huskies come on board though and I certainly will have a problem with the giraffes if they do not kneel down!! AND I must admit I am looking forward to passing my scanner over the very lovely Bryan!

[quote]nowt wrong wi' Salford these days .... feautured in the Guardian this Saturday so must be on the up & up and place for lefty/liberals to be if Hampstead is full![/quote] Hi Andy! how about the tour of Essex? Should we include Lakeside in Grays of Thurrock? Ford plant or whatever is left of it in Dagenham? Southend Pier? And not forgetting Romford Market!    

[quote]Please can someone reassure me I am doing things right? My OH and I need to go back to the UK to visit, there seem to be no catteries around us in southern 56 so we plan to take the cats with us. Th...[/quote] Hi! I do hope this is not too late for you as I have only just read your questions. As your cats have been in France more than 3 months without a return visit, they are now classed as French mogs! They will need French passports and yes, yearly rabies boosters! All French vets are empowered to do these! Also the usual ticks and worms! If you are lucky and the UK authorities do not check their passports thoroughly against your travel documents, you may get away with the original English ones but if you have time, I would change them now. Bonne Chance!

[quote]does anyone know of an english book shop or book club in dept 17?[/quote] Don't forget Amazon, they will also post to France! Failing that, put an advert in your local supermarket and maybe you could swap some books!

[quote]No criticism intended Achene it was just that your remedy to keep UK tax status or more to the point avoid French tax status would not work. Also the point I was making was that SAGA would not insur...[/quote] We are like so many Brits that have property in France and family in the UK. We think we would like to live in France all the time but you would ever know how well it would work out until you make that leap and actually become a French resident! No amount of long holidays could ever be the same! This would mean we would fully retire and the rent from the UK house would top up on the pensions. However, if, like at the moment, a family crisis occurs with someone in hospital, we would want to shoot back and be with them. Now if the UK house was rented out, we would have all the hastle of finding another to rent and as we have two, large cats that might prove difficult! Also reading this site, people are saying that if you are in France for over 3 months, the cats have to have French passports and that means they have to have different rabies injections as the French require one injection each year and it is every two years for their UK passports. I am going to talk to the English vet about this today, as the French vet say she thinks we are OK to stay in France as long as we like with the English cat passports! Nothing is straight forward!  So at the moment, with all that is going on, we have shelved everything and we will decide our future later on!

[quote]SAGA will not cover you for unlimited anything if you are a French resident, I thought moving to France meant going to live there , not flitting back to the UK every now and again to "maintain" UK st...[/quote] Just for clarification, it is not >180 days continuously living in France that gives you french resident status for tax and health purposes, it is being here for > 180 days in a calendar year.  So going back to the UK to every three months for a couple of days would not maintain your UK status.  I am not sure what you mean by this Ron? Do I understand that if one stayed 179 days and then went back, you could maintain your UK status? With my old Norwich Union Policy, we were only allowed to be away from the UK for 90 day periods, with Saga you are allowed 'unlimited' stay overs in France. So I guess that would cover the 179 days stay over. Yes I would agree that the standard of hospital care in France as compared to the shabby third world hospitals in the UK is a huge reason to be resident in France. I say this with authority as my daughter is right now in a London hospital and I wish she was in a French one! Last year, we took our French neighbour daily to visit her husband and the hospital was not new but the standards of care and hygene were both very high. In my previous letter I was trying to be helpful, I am sorry if I confused the issue.

[quote]hi Also can anyone give me advice in respect of my uk registered car, in view of the above can i continue to leave my car as is but just get it serviced in France, i have a uk insurance poli...[/quote] Saga will cover you for unlimited milage in Europe. Yes it is more expensive but you will have to keep going back to the Uk with other cheaper,standard policies! Also for health purposes, you may need to go back and forwards every three months to maintain your UK status. I really do not understand why this should have to be as surely we are all Europeans and should be able to live wherever within the confines of Europe, provided we do pay our taxes somewhere and can prove we do!  If you do not want to do this to-ing and fro-ing, then you must do as advised here and become a resident in France.

[quote]hi Also can anyone give me advice in respect of my uk registered car, in view of the above can i continue to leave my car as is but just get it serviced in France, i have a uk insurance poli...[/quote] Saga will cover you for unlimited milage in Europe. Yes it is more expensive but you will have to keep going back to the Uk with other cheaper,standard policies! Also for health purposes, you may need to go back and forwards every three months to maintain your UK status. I really do not understand why this should have to be as surely we are all Europeans and should be able to live wherever within the confines of Europe, provided we do pay our taxes somewhere and can prove we do!  If you do not want to do this to-ing and fro-ing, then you must do as advised here and become a resident in France.

Well we wanted ADSL and we decided to go with Wanadoo! The promotional person on the other end of the telephone said she had a very special offer for me! "Would I like a man for one euro?" "WELL YES," I said eagerly! "And could you also supply me with a man to help load ADSL?" LOL!

[quote]can anyone recommend a chimney sweep, preferably local to the pons/gemozac area. thanks Emma pons 17[/quote] Hi Emma, we are near you in Jonzac. I have a friend who has just had a sweep come to do the necessary! I will ask for you.

[quote]Sorry if this has come up before but I'm having trouble using Search. My French vendor saw fit to remove the woodburner AND the flue when he installed oil-fired heating (using the one existing chimne...[/quote] Hi Alan, we have bought a really lovely, enamelled half woodburner and half oven from E-Bay France. It was used as the sole source of heating and cooking for the lady's great grandmother. So my advice is to look on that site. We used 'UPS' pronounced 'OOOPS!' I am glad to say it was not the latter! They charged me 50 euros to deliver and the stove was 450 miles away! It also arrived on the day they said!

[quote]Merci beaucoup - things are becoming less daunting and 'claire' (maintenent, ma Francaise est terrible!). I am now finding the will to go on. I have booked flights to Limoges on 18th Septemebr for a...[/quote] Hi Linzi! it is brrrrrr cold in winter there and it can worse than UK! Head South is my advice!

Hi! it is our plan to buy a motorcaravan too and we have been doing research on the purchase of a secondhand one. E-Bay has loads but we think perhaps it might be better to buy it here in France where it is to be based. Any advice we would appreciate.

[quote]Is this not a daft conversation? I know someone will correct me if I am wrong, but is land not 'zoned' here? Either the hiipy/travellers are illegal, or not? Get a grip, find out from the mayor wh...[/quote] When we were looking to buy we saw a lovely farm for sale. Our French friends who were with us said on no account were we to even think of buying it as 'undesirables' (and I use this word advisedly as so many others are not politically correct now!) would watch when we went out and would be in 'filling their boots' with anything portable! An alarm would be no good at all as no-one would hear it and the sort that is linked to a regional office is a joke because they could remove everything before the alarm man turned up! If you are in a village, we have been told today by our insurance, it is advisable to have an alarm as burglaries are on the increase and the only viable deterrent is an alarm!

[quote]For excellent service on insurance matters contact Patrice Riegler in Ernee (53) 0243 0521 82. He speaks almost flawless english and as a bonus for blokes, is an expert on 60s and 70s english footbal...[/quote] There is an English security expert living over here who can install all the devices talked about here and more. He covers Charente Maritime and the Charente, may go even further if his expenses were met! He is fully siret registered, so no problems there. If you would like his contact details just e-mail me. Good luck with all your properties.

[quote]website for roof panels is www.efisol.comSteve[/quote] Our roof panels came directly from Belgium. You can choose whether they are just a plain under surface that can be painted or a panelled one. Point P in Bordeaux ordered them for us.

[quote]thanks for the replies but not interested in buying in the u.k. sure I can just as easily buy one in bricolage ect but I thought maybe someone had a woodburner gathering dust and wanted it shifted![/quote] Logburners are much in demand over here! You can buy old ones ones on brocantes but you need specialist skills to renovate them to a working condition! There are some for sale on E-Bay! No you had best get yourself to Weldom!

You could try the French section of E-Bay.

Hi everyone! we are in Dept 17 and would be interested in meeting any non-serious/just for fun bridge players! I have ventured to the local French bridge club but found the 'ancienne systeme' rather 'difficile' and alien to my usual Acol bidding. We have got Yahho bridge and I have learnt SAYC and whilst that is great entertainment it would be good to meet others here who enjoy cards.

[quote]I got flooded now over 18 months ago. Neither Marie will declare a “catastrophe natural” (though one did offer to write to the insurance company). Insurance company is doing everything possible to d...[/quote] Thanks for all your comments the insurance man has been to view the damage and I have been told to get quotes for the work to put it right. However, he did stress I was not to have the work done! Wonder why that is? And it is now August and there is no-one to quote!

[quote]in a nutshell no!! had about €7000 of tools nicked from the house but no reciepts for items that I had so it looks like i might a big might get €1800 back they will find a clause somewhere...[/quote] Well I have everything crossed here! The insurance assessor came this affy and said I was to get 'devis' for the repairs. He made a big point about saying I was NOT to have the work done, just get 'devis'! My French neighbours says he thinks that perhaps the insurance might pay out a portion of the repairs. We will see... I have had a less than wonderful day here clearing up! Worst thing is I had just done a mega spring clean as we have friends coming out! Isn't it always the way?

[quote]Also make sure you don't ask it to do too much in terms of waste outlet lift. They CLAIM they can raise the waste vertically by 4-6m and horizontally 10-20m. They can't do this reliably! And when yo...[/quote] Where can we buy these Grandfo (I trust it will not become my grand foe! :hehe ones please and do you know how much they are?

[quote]Scale not our problem. Unit is almost brand new and we are in a very soft water area. Units are just rubbish.[/quote] We are/were about to install one of these in our house. Are they really all rubbish?

Today has been the day of the Great Flood! A pipe in the en-suite has burst and has taken out the 'plafond tendu' in the bathroom below and has ruined a practically new bedroom carpet!  I managed to get a plumber to come out but he said that he does a lot of work rectifying DIY and we will not be able to claim on our household insurance as we fitted the pipes ourselves and did not use an professional plumber!  Now if he is right, this is a tricky situation as we have done most of the work in our house ourselves and say we had a fire, would we not be able to claim for that? I would really welcome anyone's imput!